Two Little Trains

Amazon.com
Two-time Caldecott Medalists Leo and Diane Dillon (Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears and Ashanti to Zulu: African Traditions) have joined their ingenious artwork with the magic of Margaret Wise Brown's words. Brown, beloved author of Goodnight Moon, wrote Two Little Trains more than 50 years ago. Now a new generation of the youngest readers will be filled with wonder at this timeless story with its splendid new illustrations.

Two trains are heading west. One is streamlined, the other small and old. On their parallel journeys, the trains encounter rivers, hills, snow, and dust storms, but neither is thwarted. But look closer and see that these two trains, though similar in many ways, have a surprising difference: one is the real thing, traversing the countryside, and the other is a toy, making its way across rug fringe "tracks," along the edge of a bathtub, through a tunnel made from a book, and past a broom and dust pan. Brown's brilliant yet simple text and the Dillons' clever and striking pictures, will serve as inspiration to many flights of fancy in young readers' minds. Truly exquisite. (Ages 3 to 6) --Emilie Coulter


From Publishers Weekly
Two-time Caldecott Medalists Leo and Diane Dillon team up with Margaret Wise Brown in Two Little Trains, first published in 1949. Right from the cover, the sleek, horizontal illustrations chronicle the parallel journeys of the titular trains: a toy train wrapped in a gift box waits on the platform next to a massive modern train. "One little train was a streamlined train,/ Puff, Puff, Puff to the West./ One little train was a little old train,/ Chug, Chug, Chug going West." In one spread, the trains look down at the "deep dark river." The streamlined train races across a purple bridge while, opposite, the toy train crawls along the edge of a bathtub, the purple soap and tub basin connecting the tub scene to that of the locomotive. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From School Library Journal
PreS-K-Two trains are going west, through tunnels, over rivers, in rain and snow, over mountains until they reach the end of their journey. Brown's poem does not always scan easily, but for the most part, it reflects the rhythm of the moving vehicles. The Dillons have created two very different trains: on the left, a real one travels through the countryside; on the right, a toy travels through a house. The illustrations are rich in color and deceptively simple. Design elements such as round purple trees on the real train side carry over to the toy train side as a bowl of plums. Toddlers will enjoy listening to the poem and finding the trains. Preschoolers will look for more parallels.-Ann Cook, formerly at Winter Park Public Library, FLCopyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Ages 2-5. In Brown's remarkable text, two trains, a "streamlined train" and a "little old train" travel westward across prairie, desert, and mountain to the ocean at "the edge of the West." The rhythms, the word sounds, and the resonant echo of folk song set up a veritable hypnotic chant that changes as the trains move along. Jean Charlot's illustrations for the original edition of Two Little Trains (1949) are among the most perfect ever devised for a picture book. Having said that, it's necessary to put them out of mind in evaluating a new book with the same text. The Dillons' interpretation splits each spread into two large, horizontal illustrations, each showing one train. On the left, the first train is depicted as a powerful, modern (in the mid-twentieth-century sense) diesel train traveling through the American landscape. On the right, a little wooden toy train is shown at various locations inside a house. As the streamlined train rushes along a river, the toy train sits on the side of a bathtub. When rain falls on the larger train, water from the shower pelts down on the little train. When the big train climbs a mountain, the little train heads up the stairway banister. Visually, the paired illustrations are complementary in hues, dynamics, and details that children may or may not consciously recognize. The fact the toy train is not being moved by a child can make it look a little static compared with the implied motion of the diesel train, but that is a quibble about soft-grained paintings that are beautifully composed in both form and color. A handsome reinterpretation. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
Puff, Puff, Puff
Chug, Chug, Chug

ANNOTATION

Two little trains, one streamlined, the other old-fashioned, puff, puff, puff, and chug, chug, chug, on their way West.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

PUFF,PUFF,PUFFCHUG,CHUG,CHUG

ALL ABOARD!

Two trains are heading West. One is a shiny train, moving fast. The other Is an old train, moving not so fast. What can they have in common? Much more than you think!

This treasured story from the author of Goodnight Moon has been newly illustrated by two-time Caldecott Medalists Leo and Diane Dillon. Margaret Wise Brown's brilliantly simple text is fittingly showcased by the Dillons' extraordinarily inventive illustrations. You'll be surprised where the two little trains take you. Come and see!

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

"Each spread chronicles the parallel journeys of the titular trains. On the left, a streamlined train stretches against expansive vistas, while, on the right, a toy wooden locomotive travels on familiar domestic turf, locations wittily chosen to mimic the path of its mammoth modern counterpart," said PW in a Best Books citation. Ages 3-6. (Oct.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Children's Literature

In this very brief, very simple tale printed in large type, "two little trains," one streamlined, one little and old, puff and chug along "that long steel track to the West." The hills, the rivers, the rain, the mountains they traverse on their way to the ocean are depicted on either side of the double pages as two very different adventures. The text moves across the pages on thin white strips below the pictures, scenes the Dillons have cleverly conjured up to give heft to the words. On the left is a streamlined silver train moving through stylized landscapes, while on the right a tiny wooden toy train is having its own adventures. But these are metaphoric, for its tunnel is an open book, its rain the bathtub shower, its desert dust spilled salt, and so forth. The two tales come together on the jacket/cover, where the real train sits in a station next to suitcases topped with the toy train. The two "tracks" should engage young listeners visually as well as verbally. 2001 (orig. 1949), HarperCollins, $15.95. Ages 3 to 6. Reviewer: Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz

The Five Owls

Margaret Wise Brown's rhythmic, imaginative words for young children, originally interpreted by Jean Charlot in 1949, are rendered anew by Leo and Diane Dillon. Half a century ago, Charlot used pen and ink drawings and four colors, in a color separation technique available at the time. Now, the Dillons use full color paintings in a widened format to take those two little trains to the West. "One little train was a streamlined train,/ Puff, Puff, Puff to the West./One little train was a little old train,/ Chug, Chug, Chug going West." In this 21st century version, the "streamlined train" is a sleek gray passenger train, traveling across the countryside on the left-hand side of the double-page spread. The "little old train" is a three-car toy train in red, blue, black, yellow, and violet, traveling on the right-hand side through the countryside of a child's house and room. Elements within the child's house reflect corresponding aspects of the scenes through which the streamlined train travels. As the book begins, the gray train is at the station, indicated by the track and station posts, with the city in the background. The toy train travels past looming chair legs as it begins its journey across a wooden floor. The streamlined train puffs past a receding city and skyline, which become a reclining teddy bear for the chugging toy train. The streamlined train looks down the long steel track, and the toy train makes its way down the fringe of a flowered rug that repeats the tracks and flowers on the left hand page. When the two little trains come to a hill and go through, the hill on the left becomes an opened book forming a tunnel for the little old train. This transformation of elements,from the scenes in the countryside to the scenes in the child's home, become, of course, both a demonstration and a study of imaginative play. Young children will "read" the pictures and make discoveries within the worlds the Dillon's paintings create, extending their enjoyment of Margaret Wise Brown's engaging and enduring text. 2001, HarperCollins, $15.95. Ages 3 to 6. Reviewer: Kathie Krieger Cerra SOURCE: The Five Owls, September/October 2001 (Vol. 16, No. 1)

School Library Journal

PreS-K-Two trains are going west, through tunnels, over rivers, in rain and snow, over mountains until they reach the end of their journey. Brown's poem does not always scan easily, but for the most part, it reflects the rhythm of the moving vehicles. The Dillons have created two very different trains: on the left, a real one travels through the countryside; on the right, a toy travels through a house. The illustrations are rich in color and deceptively simple. Design elements such as round purple trees on the real train side carry over to the toy train side as a bowl of plums. Toddlers will enjoy listening to the poem and finding the trains. Preschoolers will look for more parallels.-Ann Cook, formerly at Winter Park Public Library, FL Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Child Magazine

A Child Magazine Best Book of 2001 Pick